Hindsight 2021: Penn State Defense vs. Indiana
October 14, 2000: Prior to this Weekend, that Date Marked the Last Time Indiana Football was Shutout AND the Last Time Someone Actually Bought a ‘Zero’ Candy Bar – the RC Cola of Desserts
Sponsor: Hey, it’s us! For The Blogy! Join our 2021 FTB Donors Club – the best way for you to show your support and keep this train rolling – and receive an exclusive FTB zipper bottle Koozie as a gift! Sign up HERE.
*Please remember to click the ‘Share My Address With For The Blogy’ box when checking out so we know where to mail your gift!
Here we stand, a shepherd without a flock, a non-objectionable 16th century European explorer (if there are any left) without a map, a yappy social media influencer without a WiFi signal holding an off-market energy drink that tastes like battery acid chased by the melted droplets found at the bottom of a Fla-Vor-Ice.
In other words, we are lost.
Twelve months ago, our unprofessional, unreliable and definitely unprofitable media empire arose from a firm foundation of snark and sarcasm fueled by the early-season ineptitude of Brent Pry’s 2020 Penn State defense. Missed tackles. Blown assignments. Communication issues. Lack of gap integrity. Jayson O-sacks-weh. Lamont Wade in coverage.
God, it was glorious…a bottomless reservoir of maladroitness (August 28th on my Word of The Day desk calendar) that quenched our thirst to be a condescending jerk in print – an act that will never grow tiresome (cough).
But now…well, now there’s nothing to point and laugh at.
Five games into 2021, the refreshing level of competency displayed by Mike Yurcich’s offense has unfairly overshadowed the Penn State defense’s sudden deplorable-to-dominant 180° transformation. The Nittany Lions rank No. 9 nationally in yards allowed per play (4.33), tied for No. 2 nationally in touchdowns surrendered (6), No. 3 nationally in points allowed per game (12.0), and No. 2 nationally in Red Zone Defense (allowing scores on just 53.3 percent of possessions that matriculate inside the 20).
And so, like we said up top, here we stand…cynics with zero to criticize.
Formations
Week after week, Southern-speaking Northerner Brent Pry continues to flaunt his creativity through a handful of defensive-front variations designed to spark hesitancy and confusion along the opposing offensive line.
Against Indiana, Pry went to the attic and brushed the cobwebs off a passing down personnel package that we haven’t seen since 2019. Formationally (not a word) it’s a relatively standard 4-man front that only becomes clever once you realize Pry subbed out a beefy defensive tackle for an extra defensive end…in this case, 46-Nick Tarburton slides inside, sandwiched between 17-Arnold Ebiketie and 40-Jesse Luketa. As we’ve mentioned before, naming exotic formations and personnel packages is oddly fun and satisfying for us, a whimsical respite from the soul-suffocating Sleeper Hold that is life – we call this 3-DE package, “TRI-HARD.”
Here’s TRI-HARD from 2019 – 99-Yetur Gross-Matos was always the man bumped inside while 28-Jayson Oweh and 18-Shaka Toney stayed on as bookends.
Knowing Indiana was without its lone speed threat –injured Florida State transfer D.J. Matthews Jr. –Pry deviated from his zone-heavy coverage norm and implemented more man coverage than we’ve seen this season. That includes the first Cover 0 call – no deep safety – we’ve charted since last year vs. Indiana when Lamont Wade got burned but lucked out on an overthrown deep ball that should have caused the marching Mellencamps (Indiana’s band) to play the fight song.
No such trouble on Saturday.
Credit Penn State’s secondary – specifically 5-TCF — for continuing to cover after 12-Brandon Smith whiffed on a clean shot at 9-Michael Penix Jr.
Lastly, Penn State featured 6 defensive backs on 16 percent of its total defensive snaps on Saturday – which is unusual yet entirely misleading considering the majority of those plays occurred during the late stages of the 4th Quarter when James Franklin was busier concocting his next trolling tweet than following what was actually happening on the field. The only “competitive” snap where Penn State featured DIME personnel was this 3rd-and-Forever leveling of freshly inserted Indiana QB 14-Jack Tuttle.
Substitutions
Much more rotation along the defensive line and secondary in Penn State’s second Big Ten contest than its 95-play bare-knuckler a few weeks ago in Madison.
Former four-star DT 91-Dvon Ellies entered the fray on Indiana’s second series and really became the first of Penn State’s mostly underwhelming defensive second stringers to show us something (anything) this season. Here’s a sampling:
The promising redshirt freshman lined up at nose tackle on every 3rd down ‘THIRTY’ (3 dwn linemen) defensive front – a spot 97-PJ Mustipher anchored almost exclusively last season. On standard downs during every third or fourth series, Ellies masterfully manned Mustipher’s 1-Tech spot on the defensive line while the big fella rested.
On this play (below), Ellies – who lines up across from the center’s right armpit – manages to “cross face” and gain playside leverage by getting his helmet on the blocker’s left shoulder. 54-Derrick Tangelo and 17-Arnold Ebiketie do an A+ job reestablishing the LOS two yards upfield as 23-Curtis Jacobs slams shut the only possible escape hatch on the backside. Ellies collects the TFL.
South Carolina transfer 3-John(ny) Dixon appears to have leapfrogged spring football superhero/oft-penalized true freshman 4-Kalen King as the first backup at outside corner as he played a season-high 22 snaps, many of them meaningful. King entered the game on Indiana’s final 4-play ‘Let’s Get the Heck Out Here’ 4th Quarter drive…as did his twin brother LB 41-Kobe King. 43-Tyler Elsdon, 55-Fatmora Mulbah, 36-Zuriah Fisher, and 42-Jamari Buddin also got their cleats dirty on that same abbreviated, game-ending possession.
Defensive Line
In a word: disruptive.
In another word…actually, forget it. Disruptive is a fine descriptor of Saturday’s mismatch along the line of scrimmage as Penn State’s big eaters established squatter’s rights in the Indiana backfield pretty much from start to finish. Even with a few token garbage time runs, the Hoosiers finished with a season-low 69 net rushing yards. Nice.
Menacing Tub of Goo 97-Mustipher and his well-publicized 26 extra pounds of “good weight” had their best performance of the 2021 campaign – 6 total stops, including this terrifying (for the ballcarrier, anyway) TFL.
At 330 pounds, Mustipher “gets skinny” and splits Indiana’s center and right guard with minimal resistance. Hoosiers RB 5-Stephen Carr attempts to outrun Mustipher to the perimeter, but thinks better of that choice once he spots 46-Nick Tarburton setting the edge three yards in the wrong direction. Carr plants and tries to pivot but it’s too late. Mustipher feasts.
Mustipher also ate in less obvious situations, too. Like on this play:
No stats, no glory here, but Mustipher’s ability to swallow this C-RG double team and hold ground prevents either guy from reaching the second level and permits LB 13-Ellis Brooks to attack the intended hole untouched while Ebiketie wraps up on the backside.
According to PFF, sometimes starting DE 40-Jesse Luketa was a few fractions away – 0.4 for those scoring at home –from posting his best pass-rushing grade of the year despite compiling a season-high 4 QB hurries (again, no clue how these numbers are calculated but they’re great space fillers even though they’re full of fuzzy math. For instance, Luketa has single-game PFF defensive grades of 77.0, 77.8, 70.0, 69.3 and 69.9 this season but somehow his 2021 overall defensive grade (80.5) is substantially higher than any of his individual performances. How?).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, here’s Luketa and PJ working a two-man stunt-twist combo – PJ bashes the RG and RT while Luketa loops inside. Indiana C 72-Dylan Powell shades to the right to help his occupied neighbors but Luketa knocks the Stanford grad’s hands down, thus opening the gate and forcing an off-balance throwaway from Penix.
More Luketa:
Not sure if this outside-inside-outside waltz was Luketa’s original plan or if he audibled mid-play after his initial move flopped, but in either scenario he found a way to beat 77-Caleb Jones around the edge, which prompted Penix to launch this 500 ball toward the sideline where a sliding 9-Joey Porter Jr. corralled it for his first interception at Penn State. Because the Lions limited Indiana on the ground and forced a ton of passing downs, Luketa rushed the quarterback on 25 of 31 total snaps last Saturday – an ideal run-pass ratio for the slender but quick EDGE.
Linebackers
Hey, whaddya know…looks like 23-Curtis Jacobs is finally getting the hang of this whole playing linebacker thing. Took a minute…but good for him. A 5-star recruit stuck behind another snap-hogging 5-star (Brandon Smith) in 2020, Jacobs relative lack of experience stood out like a pimple on the tip of your nose during the season opener vs. Wisconsin as the second-year freshman/first-year starter was bounced and bullied out of gaps repeatedly.
Not anymore.
Purposely showed Indiana changing plays at the line of scrimmage to illustrate the cat-and-mouse game at hand here. As the Hoosiers audible to an RPO concept – notice 3-Ty Fryfogle (All-Name Team) looks back for the ball as he runs a quick slant across the middle of the field – Indiana has six blockers vs. six white hats in the box.
BUUUT, like a teenager sneaking in after curfew, Jacobs slips toward the line of scrimmage undetected moments before the snap.
Undetected? How do you know Penix never spotted Jacobs creeping forward?
Well, if he did, surely he would have pulled this ball and flipped to Fryfogle, right?
No daylight (nightlight?) playside, so Indiana RB/Scrabble tile emptier 22-Davion Ervin-Poindexter goes against the grain and Wile E. Coyotes (verb) right into Jacobs’ stiff shoulder. Ouch.
Fantastic discipline displaced here by Jacobs – instead of getting sucked up into the flow of the play, he stays gap sound and fulfills backside contain.
Secondary
So, yeah, these guys are pretty good.
More impressive, they’re complete football players – willing and sound tacklers who are quick to trigger downhill, not just cover guys who cower in the face of contact/collisions.
As Penix winds to throw, 9-Porter Jr. isn’t even on your TV screen! Judging from the funky replay angle, Penn State’s third-year freshman (is that right?) shrinks the 15-ish yards separating him and 5-Carr quicker than a hiccup. JPJ crashes hard but doesn’t veer out of control as he throttles down, makes the sideline his ally, and latches onto Carr’s left leg. No gain.
Leave a Comment